Read a full match report of the Premier League game between West Ham United
and Everton at Upton Park on Saturday Dec 22 2012.

Sam Allardyce and David Moyes will support each other’s appeals against the red cards Carlton Cole and Darron Gibson received in a game that will be remembered more for its controversy than its quality.

The fact that Everton enhanced their reputation as comeback kings by recovering from a losing position to win yet again, and move back into the top four in the process, was almost lost in the condemnation from both managers for an inept display from referee Anthony Taylor.

The Manchester-based referee took his toll of red cards for the season to five, the highest in the Premier League, after dismissing Cole and Gibson in separate incidents of raised boots that might have been considered yellow rather than red-card offences by many observers.

Taylor also disallowed what appeared to be a good goal by Leon Osman, the game’s outstanding player, and made a litany of other mistakes, including allowing Victor Anichebe to escape unpunished from kicking James Collins in the head in the 35th minute. Yet when Cole caught Leighton Baines half an hour later, with no apparent intent or injury, he was dismissed immediately.

Allardyce was still angry an hour after the match finished, saying: “It is how quickly the referee got the red card out, he couldn’t wait, he didn’t deliberate over the decision or anything.

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“If you compare Anichebe on Collins with what Carlton Cole did, they were the same types of challenge but one went without a word and the other gets a straight red card. There was no consistency during the game.

“It had a massive effect on the result, and the punishment would be twofold if Carlton is banned. We will appeal and hope he gets off.”

Moyes was just as unhappy with Gibson’s dismissal in stoppage time for a raised boot on Mark Noble, and suggested the referee was trying to even things up.

He said: “I didn’t think either of them was a sending off, but after the first one he probably thought he had to do the other. They

were both honestly going for the ball.

“I’ll have a word with Sam as well, because I don’t think you could put the word frivolous next to that appeal. I think you would say there was genuine reason why maybe you could appeal that.

“Now, you don’t want to go and appeal and find out that maybe you get an extra game on it. That’s what you don’t want to do.”

Moyes was also unhappy that Taylor ruled out Osman’s header in the 12th minute, after one of his assistants decided that Anichebe impeded goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen – a harsh judgment according to television replays.

Everton’s sense of injustice was compounded when West Ham promptly opened the scoring moments later. Cole had no obvious route to goal when he received a pass from Matt Taylor 25 yards out, but he sidestepped John Heitinga a little too easily, made space for a shot and drilled the ball inside the near post.

Moyes fired up his players at half-time, and they proceeded to take hold of the game. Anichebe, back after two months out injured, headed a cross from Steven Pienaar into the far corner of the net to equalise in the 65th minute.

Within two minutes Cole was dismissed and when Everton scored the winner six minutes later, chants of “2-1 to the referee” rang round Upton Park.

The goalscorer was not clear, as the excellent Pienaar exchanged passes with Osman before charging towards the near post. The ball squirmed through a tangle of legs before crossing the line, and Pienaar claimed the strike.

The drama did not end there. Nikica Jelavic missed two great chances for Everton, Kevin Nolan put the ball wide from close range, and then Gibson was dismissed in stoppage time.

It meant Everton had come from behind to win for the fourth time, and with five draws and only one defeat in the previous nine occasions, shows their strength of character. But it was West Ham’s fourth defeat in six games, and Allardyce admitted his depleted squad are struggling. “We are suffering badly enough with illness and injuries without decisions going against us. It’s a bitter pill to swallow.”